From the Guidelines
No, diabetes has not been cured in China. While Chinese researchers have made significant contributions to diabetes treatment and management, including traditional Chinese medicine approaches and modern research into beta cell regeneration, there is currently no cure for diabetes in China or anywhere else in the world 1. Diabetes management in China, as elsewhere, focuses on controlling blood glucose levels through medication (such as insulin, metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors, or GLP-1 receptor agonists), dietary changes, exercise, and regular monitoring. Some experimental treatments in China have shown promise in improving diabetes control, but these represent advances in management rather than cures. The fundamental challenges of diabetes—autoimmune destruction of beta cells in Type 1 and insulin resistance in Type 2—remain unsolved medical problems requiring ongoing treatment rather than one-time cures.
Current Management Strategies
- Medications: insulin, metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors, or GLP-1 receptor agonists
- Lifestyle modifications: dietary changes, exercise, and regular monitoring
- Experimental treatments: advances in management rather than cures
Key Findings
- The prevalence of diabetes in China has increased rapidly from 0.67% in 1980 to 10.4% in 2013 1
- The Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS) has published guidelines for the prevention and care of type 2 diabetes in China, which include epidemiology, diagnosis, primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, and treatment options 1
- Lifestyle changes, such as reduced calorie intake and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, are key to preventing diabetes and its cardiovascular complications 1
Recommendations
- Focus on controlling blood glucose levels through medication, dietary changes, exercise, and regular monitoring to improve quality of life and reduce morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes.
- Consider lifestyle modifications, such as weight loss and increased physical activity, to improve glycaemic control and reduce cardiovascular risk factors 1.
From the Research
Diabetes Cure in China
- There is no direct evidence to suggest that diabetes has been cured in China 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
- The available studies discuss various treatments and therapies for managing diabetes, but none of them mention a cure for the disease 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
- Research has shown that diabetes is considered a chronic incurable disease, but recent advances in the study of autoimmune mechanisms and non-medical therapeutic approaches shed light on the pathophysiology and induce optimism concerning a possible cure in the future 2.
- Various medications and therapies, such as metformin, sulphonylureas, insulin, and glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, are available to improve blood glucose control in type 2 diabetes, but they do not provide a cure for the disease 3, 5, 6.
- The treatment of diabetes mellitus is evolving, with ongoing research focusing on cardiovascular endpoints and more realistic therapeutic goals, which may lead to improved therapies and potentially a cure in the future 4.